Mozilla Launches Monitor Plus Service
Mozilla announced on February 7 a new service, Monitor Plus, designed to help users remove personal information from the Web, such as names, current and former addresses, phone numbers, and other sensitive data. The service is based on Mozilla Monitor’s free privacy scanning service, which allows users to have their personal information deleted from more than 190 data integrators for $8 per month. Mozilla Monitor Plus will also periodically check to make sure that users’ information does not appear on those data integrators’ Web sites. Mozilla promises to treat information provided by users in a highly Mozilla promises to handle user-provided information in a highly encrypted manner, and the service also supports the ability to locate potential breaches of information, including social security numbers, credit card details, bank accounts and passwords, and guides users through the process of fixing and resolving them.
Porsche unveils the 2025 Taycan
On February 6, Porsche announced a refresh of its all-electric Taycan. The new 2025 Taycan is available in Sport Sedan and versatile Cross Turismo versions, the latter with Off-Road Package, with four options for each version. 2025 Taycan comes standard with Adaptive Air Suspension, and compared to the 2023 model year it offers improvements in terms of dynamics, charging speed and range, such as DC charging with 800 volts and up to 320kW of power, The 2025 Taycan is equipped with adaptive air suspension as standard, and compared to the 2023 model, there are improvements in terms of dynamics, charging speed and range, such as 800-volt DC charging at up to 320kW, improved thermal management, heat pump and kinetic energy recovery for a real-world range of up to 587 kilometers, and the push-to-pass function in the Sport Chrono option, which offers up to 140kW of additional output power during launch control. The 2025 Taycan is now available for pre-order in the U.S., with the Sport Sedan version delivering in the summer of 2024, priced from $99,400, and the Cross Turismo version delivering in the fall of 2024, priced from $111,100.
Apple Announces AI Tool for Retouching Photos with Just a Verbal Description
Apple researchers, in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara, have developed an AI model called MGIE that allows users to edit photos with simple verbal descriptions, including cropping, resizing, flipping, and adding filters.The MGIE (MGIE) model combines the capabilities of a multimodal language model, where the user enters textual prompts, the model will “generate” editing effects based on these prompts. For example, a request to make the sky in a photo bluer might result in an increase in the saturation of the blue color in the sky portion.
An example from the research paper is editing a picture of a pepperoni pizza and adding vegetable toppings by typing “make it healthier” Apple has made the MGIE model available for download on GitHub and posted an online demo on Hugging Face Spaces. While Apple hasn’t announced plans to use the model beyond research, company CEO Tim Cook said Apple plans to add more AI features to its devices this year. Additionally, last December, Apple researchers released an open-source machine learning framework called MLX, which is designed to simplify the process of training AI models on Apple Silicon chips.
Apple Music for Windows and More Officially Released
Apple Music for Windows, Apple TV for Windows, and the updated iCloud for Windows are now available. Users can now use the Apple Music service and the Apple TV service on the Windows platform. Apple has been phasing out iTunes for nearly five years, and that process continues on Windows PCs. While Apple Music and Apple TV, as well as the updated iCloud app, are officially available on Windows as of today, iTunes still manages and synchronizes with iDevices on Windows. The new design of iCloud for Windows aims to present iCloud-related information in a more modern way, with new sync status indicators, support for syncing with Microsoft Photos, physical security keys for Apple IDs, and reduced login prompts.
OpenAI to Introduce Image Watermarking Supporting C2PA Standard
On February 6, OpenAI announced that it will add C2PA-supported image watermarks to images generated by the ChatGPT and DALL-E 3 models. The C2PA watermark consists of a set of invisible metadata and a visible CR symbol, which is displayed in the upper-left corner of the image. The C2PA watermark allows users to verify the source of an image through tools such as Content Credentials, Verify, and more, including the APIs, tools, etc. The C2PA watermark will also be available to mobile users by February 12th.
Apple Opens the 2024 Swift Student Challenge
On February 6, Apple announced the opening of the 2024 Swift Student Challenge, with applications due by February 25, 2024.The 2024 Challenge includes a new mechanism whereby Apple will select 50 outstanding winners from a pool of 350 winners, recognize them and invite them to the Apple campus in Cupertino. All Challenge winners will also receive a one-year membership to the Apple Developer Program, a free voucher to take the App Development with Swift certification exam, and a special gift from Apple.
